Winter Ice Mobiles

I’ve been meaning to do this activity for a while and thought we had missed the chilly window what with Spring imminently upon us, but it seems that Spring will have to be a patient thanks to a blast of cold Atlantic air that led us to have a smattering of snow yesterday. So out came the hat and gloves and off we went, collecting bag in hand, to forage for nature’s goodies to make our garden ice mobiles with. Yes technically you don’t need the presence of snow for this activity but the colder the weather the longer you will get to enjoy your creations for obvious reasons! It’s also a great excuse to get the kids out and about in the fresh air on a cold day and hunting for interesting vegetation takes everyone’s mind off frosty extremities!

1) First off, take your little one(s) off on a walk. Try to go somewhere where you know there is plenty of plant life and collect lots of interesting foliage and other natural “decorations”, the brighter the better but do be careful about bright berries – if you want to use some then it is best not to let children touch these and carefully pick them yourself as many winter berries are poisonous if ingested. We have a great little pocket park near us where we managed to find all sorts of goodies from moss and berries to Penny Plant. My daughter loves this bit – apparently it’s very exciting finding all this “treasure”.

2) Next cut some lengths of string and lay them over the muffin case tray in vertical lines, pushing the string down into the cases. Leave enough hanging over the ends of the tray at one end to allow for making a hanging loop/tie.

3) Fill the tray wells with all your collected treasure.

4) Fill each tray well with water and then put the tray into a freezer until frozen (usually a couple of hours).

5) Turn the tray upside down and pour some tepid water over the base to loosen the ice cups – they should then fall out the tray quite easily.

6) Find somewhere nice in the garden to hang/tie your ice mobiles and admire them before they melt!